Google Now

Google Now was first introduced back in Jelly Bean 4.1 and is definitely one of the most interesting additions in the OS. Simply put, it's Google's version of a personal assistant. Google Now is in the same neck of the woods as Apple's Siri, but it learns constantly from your daily routine.

It's accessed by holding the home button and gives you short overview of information it believes is relevant to you right now in the form of cards. Going to work in the morning? Google Now knows this and lets you know there's a big traffic jam on your usual way to the office, so it offers you a re-route.

It can interpret a lot of things from your search history as well. If you've been searching for, let's say, your favorite football team, Google Now will prepare a card showing you the next match the team is playing and will provide you score updates once the game begins.

Google Now

In Jelly Bean 4.2.2, Google Now has become even smarter and, if you allow it, can scan your email for upcoming flights, deliveries or restaurant reservations and let you know when they are due. There are also numerous kinds of cards like birthdays (yours and those of your contacts) and what distance you've walked in a particular month. The last one could definitely feel creepy for some users, but it's easily turned off from the Google Now settings menu. The latest addition to Google Now cards are TV and Offers.

Google has also integrated Voice Actions. They can handle stuff like sending messages (SMS or email), initiating a voice call, asking for directions, taking a note or opening a site. Google Now can also launch apps, check and manage your calendar and look for nearby places of interest and stuff like movie openings in theaters.

One big advantage of Google's Jelly Bean is that the voice typing functionality doesn't require an internet connection to work. You can enter text by speaking anywhere you can use the on-screen keyboard - be it the Messaging app or a note taking app - without the need for a data connection as long as you have pre-downloaded the needed language packs (and those only take about 20-25MB of your storage per pack).

Making voice typing available offline also made it faster as it's not dependent on your connection. What's even more impressive is that the transition hasn't cost it anything in terms of accuracy.

Synthetic benchmarks

Hardware-wise the HTC One Google Play Edition has the same chipset on tap, down to the clock speed. The CPU in question is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 600 and it packs four Krait 300 cores that are clocked as high as 1.7GHz each.

There are 2 gigs of RAM on the Google Play Edition One and the Adreno 320 handles graphics.

We've already tested the potent Snapdragon 600 in the global HTC One and we know it can compete on the highest of levels. The interesting question here is whether Google's stock Android will make the device faster or slower. So without further ado, here come the scores.

The HTC One Google Play Edition unsurprisingly does quite well in CPU related benchmarks. You can see its scores below.

Benchmark Pi

Lower is better

Samsung Galaxy S4 GPE118

Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)132

Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)132

HTC One GPE145

HTC One151

Sony Xperia Z264

HTC Butterfly266

Oppo Find 5267

HTC One X+280

LG Optimus G285

Samsung Galaxy Note II305

HTC One X (Tegra 3)330

LG Optimus 4X HD350

Samsung Galaxy S III359

Meizu MX 4-core362

Nexus 4431

Linpack

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy S4 GPE843

Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)791

Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)788

HTC One GPE715

HTC One646

Sony Xperia Z630

HTC Butterfly624

LG Optimus G608

Oppo Find 5593

Samsung Galaxy Note II214.3

Nexus 4213.5

Meizu MX 4-core189.1

HTC One X+177.7

Samsung Galaxy S III175.5

HTC One X160.9

LG Optimus 4X HD141.5

Geekbench 2 is a cross-platform benchmark, which allows us to compare the HTC One Google Play Edition against the iPhone 5.

Geekbench 2

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)3324

Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)3227

Samsung Galaxy S4 GPE3211

HTC One GPE2458

HTC One2708

Sony Xperia Z2173

HTC Butterfly2143

Samsung Galaxy S III1845

LG Optimus G1723

LG Optimus 4X HD1661

iPhone 51601

Moving on to compound benchmarks, AnTuTu and Quadrant. Expectedly, the HTC One Google Play Edition performed up to snuff in both.

AnTuTu

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)26275

Samsung Galaxy S4 GPE25755

Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)24716

HTC One22678

Sony Xperia Z20794

HTC One GPE18919

HTC Butterfly19513

Samsung Galaxy S III15547

Oppo Find 515167

Quadrant

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)12446

Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)12376

HTC One GPE12197

Samsung Galaxy S4 GPE11938

HTC One11746

Sony Xperia Z8075

HTC One X+7632

LG Optimus G7439

Oppo Find 57111

HTC One X5952

Samsung Galaxy Note II5916

Samsung Galaxy S III5450

Meizu MX 4-core5170

Nexus 44567

Now let's look at the GPU benchmarks. We ran GLBenchmark 2.5 in 1080p off-screen mode, which is also the native screen resolution for today's crop of Android flagships.

GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)43

Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)41

HTC One37

Samsung Galaxy S4 GPE33

HTC One GPE41

Google Nexus 432

Sony Xperia Z31

Sony Xperia ZL31

Sony Xperia SP31

Apple iPhone 530

LG Optimus G Pro30

LG Optimus G21

Samsung Galaxy Note II17

HTC One X11

GLBenchmark 2.7 T-Rex (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)17.1

Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)17.1

Apple iPad 416.8

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active16

Samsung Galaxy S4 GPE15

HTC One GPE13.9

LG Optimus G13.9

Sony Xperia Z13.5

Sony Xperia Tablet Z13

Sony Xperia ZL12.8

Samsung Galaxy Note II4.9

Epic Citadel

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)59.8

Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)57.1

HTC One56.4

Samsung Galaxy S4 GPE55.8

Sony Xperia Z55.6

HTC One GPE54.2

Nexus 453.9

Asus Padfone 253.4

LG Optimus G52.6

Samsung Galaxy S III41.3

Oppo Find 538.6

Finally we come to JavaScript, which is a known Achilles heel to stock Android.

SunSpider

Lower is better

Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)804

Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)810

Samsung Ativ S891

Apple iPhone 5915

Nokia Lumia 920910

Samsung Galaxy Note II972

HTC One X+1001

LG Optimus G Pro1011

Motorola RAZR i XT8901059

HTC One1124

Samsung Galaxy S III1192

HTC One GPE1308

Sony Xperia Z1336

LG Optimus G1353

HTC Butterfly1433

Samsung Galaxy S4 GPE1554

Nexus 41971

Oppo Find 52045

Vellamo

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy Note II2418

HTC One2382

HTC One GPE2370

HTC One X (Tegra 3)2078

Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)2060

Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)2056

HTC Butterfly1866

Oppo Find 51658

Samsung Galaxy S III1641

LG Optimus 4X HD1568

LG Optimus G1522

Meizu MX 4-core1468

Samsung Galaxy S4 GPE1423

Nexus 41310

The HTC One Google Play Edition unsurprisingly did quite well in all synthetic benchmarks. We were mostly surprised to about how well the smartphone did in the JavaScript section - it did much better than we expected.